Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle, a one-man show by Russell McGilton, is fast, furious, funny and foul. Leaping from character to character, McGilton manages to play practically every single person and animal in India, himself included. The hyperactive result is something like Under Milk Wood as written by Beavis and performed by Butthead.
The show’s title suggests some kind of journey: from Bombay, to Beijing, by bicycle. In practice there is a whole lot of Bombay-Mumbai, and India more generally; a bit of cycling; and hardly any Beijing. But this isn’t really a criticism of the show, especially since its real pleasure comes from plunging you into a delirious, ludicrous vision of the subcontinent.
McGilton’s India is, among other things, a smorgasbord of scatology. It has it all: diarrhoea, urine-drinking, feverish masturbation, monkey testicles slapping on foreheads, mosquito fellatio and plenty more. I had the pleasure of being dry-humped by a feral Russell-monkey, and I wasn’t even sitting in the front row.
McGilton is a fiendishly enthusiastic stage presence, with the shining bald head and wild eyes of a godless Jesuit. His unflagging energy is a sight to behold, especially towards the end of the show, when he has sweated right through his shirt (the dry-hump wasn’t actually that dry).
While there’s no shortage of gags about ‘those crazy Indians’, I felt like there could’ve been a bit more interrogation of the Australian masculinity lurking at the centre of it all – the heart of dorkness. That said, Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle does a very good job of recreating the quintessential tourist experience of blundering through a strange land that you scarcely understand and having ‘authentic cultural experiences’ mainly because you can’t avoid them.
There are some quieter moments – not too many, but a couple – when McGilton-the-writer takes over from Russell-the-dirty-clown, and the audience is treated to some poetry:
The farmers
tended their fields,
While their children
played by the road
covered in filth…
If there is a moral to the show, and I’m not sure there is, it would be something like: no matter how far you travel, you’re always stuck with yourself. And your haemorrhoids.
Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle is a must-see if you:
a) Are thinking about going to India and don’t know what to expect
b) Have been to India and want to simulate a traumatic flashback
c) Feel like laughing your arse off watching a grown man impersonate his own buttocks.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Russell McGilton – Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle
Tuxedo Cat, Melbourne
27 March – 9 April
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
27 March – 21 April
